BOWDOINHAM – More than 40 people searched a thickly wooded area for a 9-year-old boy Wednesday after the boy went missing while taking his grandparents’ dog for a walk, officials said.

Game wardens, Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputies and volunteers searched an area off Ridge Road near the Richmond town line, said Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesman Mark Latti. Wardens used search dogs and a search plane to help in their efforts.

Latti said the boy, Grant Thompson, last was seen at 9 a.m. Wednesday when he took his grandparents’ dog for a walk in the woods behind their home. The boy and his parents were visiting from their home in Nashua, N.H.

Latti said that when the grandparents went out a short time later and called for the boy, the dog returned but the boy did not.

The boy is about 4 feet, 6 inches tall and has brown hair. He last was seen wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan “Where the Wild Things Are,” cutoff jeans and sandals.